>If I understand this correctly, somewhere in the early 2330s, Gryphon >spends some time commenting on why Gibson should have known better >than to install fucking multitronic technology.

Yes, pretty much.

--G."And now I have to go out and destroy my own car. Clearly this is a new low for me."-><-Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum ModEyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/zgryphon at that email service Google hasCeterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

It should be noted that the Griffon Mk IX might not be the first time the good people at Sunrise Motorworks have drawn on the styling of a classic Earth car of the 20th century for the outer shell of one of the Griffon line. That's simply not knowable for sure in 2410.

The reason this is unknowable is because the Griffon Mk VIII never appeared. It was planned for the WDF's 300th anniversary celebration, which would have been held in 2292, but of course the Fun Stopped several years before that and suddenly it was not particularly prudent for a major Salusian automobile manufacturer to be commemorating the Wedge Defense Force, much less building special cars bearing the name of its most roundly despised founder. All that had reached the public's ear about the Mk VIII before Sonset were vague rumors and a few numbers.

Rumors persist in certain circles that the Mk VIII prototype was actually completed in secret by certain diehards within Sunrise's black-ops division, the Special Projects Group, but the company always denied it, and as of the recording of Road Film (With Fighting), no trace of such a machine had ever been found. What it would've looked like was a closely guarded secret - it was meant to be a surprise for the car's namesake at its unveiling, as were its predecessors - and after 2288, nothing was ever heard of it again.

Previous Griffons varied widely in their format and style, though. Just look at the ones we know about from previous stories: the Mk I was a psycho supercar, the Mk II a luxury ultracoupé, and the Mk IV a high-precision autoduelist's weapon (the Stig has one in The Sandero Affair). Given that precedent, the Mk VIII might've been almost anything. Members of the sardonically named Sunrise Griffon Non-Owners' Club do love to speculate about it, even in the 2400s - all the more so since the Mk IX's number acknowledges, for the first time since 2288, that it had ever existed...

>>I suppose reports of the Mk VIII tooling around California during >>1885, 1955, and 2015, causing all sorts of havoc, would be unfounded >>rumors and gross speculation, then. >>No, all those incidents are fairly well-documented. Different car; >nothing to do with Sunrise SPG or the Griffon Mk VIII.

For those not familiar with the older parts of the UF oeuvre, see Doc Mui's "Leap Years".

>>>I suppose reports of the Mk VIII tooling around California during >>>1885, 1955, and 2015, causing all sorts of havoc, would be unfounded >>>rumors and gross speculation, then. >>>>No, all those incidents are fairly well-documented. Different car; >>nothing to do with Sunrise SPG or the Griffon Mk VIII. >>For those not familiar with the older parts of the UF oeuvre, see Doc >Mui's "Leap Years".

"They planned their campaigns just as you might make a splendid piece of harness. It looks very well; and answers very well; until it gets broken; and then you are done for. Now I made my campaigns of ropes. If anything went wrong, I tied a knot; and went on." -- Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington

>>>>I suppose reports of the Mk VIII tooling around California during >>>>1885, 1955, and 2015, causing all sorts of havoc, would be unfounded >>>>rumors and gross speculation, then. >>>>>>No, all those incidents are fairly well-documented. Different car; >>>nothing to do with Sunrise SPG or the Griffon Mk VIII. >>>>For those not familiar with the older parts of the UF oeuvre, see Doc >>Mui's "Leap Years". >>... or if you've already ready it, go reread it, because it's a fun >story.

Wow, people still remember me.

And as for the incidents, the debriefing might have ended up something like this:

"Look, Ben, I can explain. We had the local currency, we had the right clothes, and we had a hat that would cover Keri's ears."

"So what happened?"

"Someone tried to commit suicide by groping Keri. She threw him twenty feet away. And then both the flux capacitor and the cloaking device went wonky."

>"You're in the history books about 88 years before you were born." >>"Yeah, not one of my better vacations."

I can't help but think that many WDF personnel vacations during the Golden Age went that degree of pear-shaped (if not necessarily that kind). It's easy to imagine Zoner bellyaching about how every time he takes Yuri to a planet with a nice beach, some bonehead launches a revolution, or holds the planet hostage with a doomsday weapon, or so forth.

"Everyone gets lost in the darknessDreamers learn to steer by the stars..." - Rush, "The Pass"